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"Dracula" And The Gay Reveal

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This post contains spoilers for last night's episode of Dracula

If you haven't tuned into NBC's new take on the King of Vampires, last night's episode of Dracula gave you another reason to check the series out. The show, which debuted two Fridays ago, stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and he brings his full sensual force to bear as the titular count, here infiltrating London society in the guise of American industrialist Alexander Grayson. His is not the only pretty face in the cast, which boasts among others the toothsome Thomas Kretschmann as Van Helsing, handsome Oliver Jackson-Cohen as Jonathan Harker and Nonso Abozie serving a beefy, burly take on the usually sniveling Renfield.

harkdracren(l-r: Jackson-Cohen, Rhys Meyers, Abozie and intrigued bystander)

In addition to the abundance of eye candy, last night's episode unspooled a gay sub-plot that could potentially be very intriguing. As part of his scheme, Dracula as Grayson has entered into a business partnership with one Lord Laurent (Anthony Howell). He offers to buy Laurent out of his holdings but, Laurent, a member of a secret society set on blocking "Grayson's" broader plans, refuses. Dracula then turns to Harker, whom he has hired as a personal assistant, seeking to learn all of Laurent's darkest secrets. After a moment's hesitation, Harker names a certain private club where, should Dracula be in attendance at 10:00 that evening, all will be revealed.

At the appointed hour Dracula arrives and is admitted to the club, whose patronage is entirely men, and of which he is apparently a member. As he scans the room, a man in drag performs on stage. Soon Dracula's eyes alight on Laurent, who is in the company of the improbably handsome Daniel Davenport (Lewis Rainer). Daniel rises from their table to leave and Laurent entreats him to stay. Daniel relents and sits back down and the men exchange a kiss.

A moment later Laurent and Dracula spot each other. Dracula moves to the couple and introduces himself to Daniel with a kiss on the mouth.

Dracula gay kiss

Sitting, he tells Laurent that while he cares not whom anyone should choose to love, he imagines that the revelation would have a devastating effect on both Laurent's wife and Daniel's father, a prominent political and business figure of whom Daniel is the only son.

On the one hand, this is a fairly standard gay blackmail scene, one that we've seen played out time and again in one movie or TV show or another for decades. On the other, the casual kiss between the Count and Daniel, along with a series of interactions between Dracula and Harker that are unmistakably a form of seduction, indicate that this is a Dracula who is, if not bisexual, fully aware that his powers of fascination extend across the sexes and is willing to use them equally. The lesbian vampire trope has been explored (and exploited) many times since the novella Carmilla was published in 1872. Gay male vampires are a far less explored subject, especially in mainstream vampire literature and even more especially in the context of Dracula. This despite language in Bram Stoker's original novel which can easily be read as evidence of a perverse sexual interest by Dracula for Harker when the former chastises his brides: "How dare you touch him, any of you? How dare you cast eyes on him when I had forbidden it? Back, I tell you all! This man belongs to me!"

The presence of this subplot also adds to the historical verisimilitude of the series. Set in London in the 1880s, Dracula takes place at just the same time when Oscar Wilde came onto the literary and social scene. Wilde would famously be destroyed some years later for his homosexuality, and that historical knowledge adds a layer of awareness to the subplot that it otherwise might not have. Not to mention that this is a genre program and genre fans have, deserved or not, a reputation for being less than tolerant of gay material.

It remains to be seen whether and how this subplot will continue to bear on the series as a whole. According to IMDB, Laurent and Daniel are slated to appear in at least one more episode each. Regardless, their presence in the series is a welcome addition to a canon where explicitly gay and bisexual male imagery is sorely lacking.

Dracula airs on NBC Fridays at 9:00 Eastern/8:00 Central.

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